diff --git a/perl/randomSampleFromStream.pl b/perl/randomSampleFromStream.pl
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d39d6c961
--- /dev/null
+++ b/perl/randomSampleFromStream.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
+
+use strict;
+use Getopt::Long;
+
+sub usage {
+    print "\nUsage: randomSampleFromStream.pl [-N size] [file1 file2 ...]\n\n";
+    print "   Selects a random sample of 'size' elements, without replacement,\n";
+    print "   from dataset that represents a union of all input steams. If no\n";
+    print "   input streams are specified, then reads STDIN. This script implements\n";
+    print "   the standard reservoir sampling algorithm, i.e. it does not preload\n";
+    print "   the data into memory and performs selection in one pass.\n\n";
+    print "      -N size : optional (default=1), size of the random sample to select.\n\n";
+
+    exit(0);
+}
+
+
+
+my @selectedLines; # the line we are going to print at the end
+my $sampleSize = 1;
+
+my @streams;
+my $curr_stream;
+
+sub nextLine {
+    my $line = <$curr_stream>;
+    
+    return $line if ( $line ) ;
+
+    if ( $curr_stream ne "STDIN" && scalar @streams > 0 ) {
+        # we are done with the current stream: try opening next one
+        until ( $line ) { 
+            close $curr_stream;
+            if ( scalar @streams > 0 ) {
+                my $fname = shift @streams;
+                open($curr_stream, "< $fname") or 
+                    die("Can not open input file $fname");    
+                $line = <$curr_stream>;
+            } else {
+                last; # no more streams left
+            }
+        } 
+    }
+    return $line;
+}
+
+my $help = 0;
+GetOptions( "N:s" => \$sampleSize,
+            "h" => \$help ) or usage();
+
+usage() if ( $help ) ;
+
+if ( scalar(@ARGV) == 0 ) {
+    $curr_stream = "STDIN";
+} else {
+    my $fname = shift @ARGV;
+    open($curr_stream, "< $fname") or 
+            die("Can not open input file $fname");    
+    push @streams, @ARGV;
+}
+
+
+my $line;
+
+for ( my $i = 0 ; $i < $sampleSize; $i++ ) {
+    $line = nextLine();
+    if ( $line ) {
+        push @selectedLines, $line;
+    } else {
+        # no more lines in the input stream(s)! we got less than sampleSize so far!
+        $sampleSize = $i ; # reset sampleSize to the actual number of lines available
+        last; 
+    }
+}
+
+
+$line = nextLine() if ( $line ) ; # if no more lines left, do not attempt to read
+my $index = 0; # where to insert line if selected
+
+my $counter = $sampleSize; # total number of lines read
+
+while ( $line ) {
+    $counter++;
+
+    my $prob = $sampleSize/$counter; 
+
+    if ( rand() <= $prob ) {
+        # line gets selected
+        $index = int ( rand ( $sampleSize ) ) if ( $sampleSize > 1 ); # choose where to insert
+        $selectedLines[$index] = $line; # replace old value with newly selected line
+    } 
+    $line = nextLine();
+}
+
+
+for ( my $i = 0 ; $i < $sampleSize ; $i++ ) { print $selectedLines[$i]; }
+